This post is part of a series on some of the most memorable companies that have disappeared.

Once upon a time, there was a computer brand called Compaq. It was one of the largest sellers of PCs in the entire world in the 1980s and 1990s. Then 2002 comes and Hewlett-Packard Corp. (NYSE: HPQ) merges with the company. The end.

Well, sounds like a short-lived story, and in actuality, it was. Compaq existed for only 20 years (1982 - 2002) before being gobbled up by then-CEO Carly Fiorina of HP to make HP's market share as large as possible. Compaq was mostly thought of as a quality brand from many system administrators I talked to back in the late 1990s, although I heard more horror stories from consumers that owned Compaq PCs. Apparently, the "compatibility" and "quality" that made up the Compaq name wasn't jiving with many consumers who bought its machines.

Compaq, formed on a few dinner napkins in Houston by three former Texas Instruments (NASDAQ: TXN) executives, and became a force to be dealt with in the market for consumer PCs in the 1990s. In fact, it was one of the first manufacturers to dip its toe into making sub-$1,000 PCs, which are now commonplace with every PC manufacturer. The Deskpro, Systempro and Presario were all Compaq brand names, all the way until it merged with HP. HP still markets a few desktop and laptop systems as "Compaq" brands to this day, probably due to just having a few more flavors on the candy shelf for customers to choose over.

But, the name is all that remains from Compaq's 20-year history. Do you miss the company? If you owned one of Compaq's real machines (to this day), sound off below and let us know what you like and don't like about this vanished brand.